'Mad Men' recap, 'Signal 30': Red-faced and white-knuckled

AMCOn "Mad Men," Rebecca (Embeth Davidtz) and Lane (Jared Harris), who is sporting the colors of England's soccer team, dine at a pub on the night the team wins the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

For Pete Campbell, the question isn’t “When are things going to get back to normal?”

It’s “When is copycatting early ‘60s Don going to earn me respect?” Or, “When does success become satisfying?” Don in his heyday didn’t have nearly this many enemies.

The latest “Mad Men” — which is a bit heavy on the match cuts (that’s a film editing term) — looks at business relations, masculine yearning and the scary slo-mo car collision that’s come to parallel Pete’s middle years.

Don tries to dodge a dinner party at the Campbell’s suburban abode that sounds about as dull as his old plans with Betty. But he appears impervious to Trudy’s stamina. The party is little more than a painfully transparent paean to Don, who is practically declared the man of the house on top of receiving the finest cut of steak. Pete flaunts his new stereo by playing classical music too loud. The kitchen sink Pete thought he fixed spits water like a geyser. And he gets one-upped by handyman/everyman Don, whom it only seems fair to compare with Jon Hamm in the category of surprise talents. On the way home, Don drunkenly suggests he and Megan make a baby.

Pete takes a driver’s education class, during which he develops a crush on Jenny (Amanda Bauer), a high-school girl bound for Ohio State. They’re both nostalgic for simpler times, and talk about taking turns driving to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. If they got into an accident, he’d have a lot of explaining to do. Jenny, if she even saw Pete in a romantic light, falls for an athletic classmate nicknamed "Handsome" instead. The track star (Parker Young) is more her speed.

Ken is still writing depressing short stories, now under the alias of Ben Hargrove. He prefers to keep his literary passions a secret, for fear of paying the price in the cutthroat world of office politics. First, Peggy catches him with a prospective publisher, then Cynthia touts his tales at the party. (Worlds are colliding. And that’s not the only construable “Seinfeld” reference. Peggy’s line “I thought we had a pact!” brings to mind Jerry and George’s botched agreement to mature and settle down.) After Pete spreads the word about his stories, Roger makes Ken feel like his job could be on the line if he doesn’t commit to one craft only. Ken chooses to switch aliases — this time, Dave Algonquin, named after New York's Algonquin Hotel, or the cocktail. Would Roger actually fire Ken?

Rebecca drags Lane to a pub to cheer on the ultimately victorious British team at the televised World Cup. Dining with them is Edwin Baker (David Hunt), a Jaguar Cars public relations executive who’s in the market for an advertising campaign and wants to hear from an account man. Later, Lane, the financial chief, tells the partners and wants to handle his first account. Pete bullies him about it, speculating it’s a costly endeavor with measly returns. Roger steps in to mentor Lane on the art of schmoozing clients. We never thought we’d hear Roger speak of feigning drinking. He instructs Lane to obtain answers by being smooth and artificially empathetic. When Lane fails, the big boys take Edwin to dinner.

“Lane couldn’t close a car door,” Pete sneers. Sure, Lane lacks an account man’s bravado, but at least he knows how to drive a car.

Pete, Roger and Don take Edwin to a high-end brothel, where each man gets his jollies except Don. On the cab ride home, Don makes him feel shame for cheating on Trudy. Don says he feels Pete has everything right now; only a fool would test it.

The next day, Lane reveals to the partners they’ve lost the Jaguar account. Off-camera, Edwin’s wife caught her husband with chewing gum on his pubic hair, Lane says. Because Pete spearheaded Wining and Dining: Round Two, he’s the first to be dealt Lane’s wrath. He fires back a nasty, and untrue, riposte: “Our need for you disappeared the day after you fired us.”

Lane engages Pete in a boxing match in the conference room. Don eagerly closes the curtains. As Joan and Peggy eavesdrop from the adjacent room, Lane gets in two clean blows that drop Pete to the table, then the floor. In Lane’s office, Joan says it’s good to be different. He misreads the signal and kisses her. The move is an almost startling indication that Lane, too, is one of the boys. Being the good work friend she is, Joan accepts it as one elongated faux pas.

In the elevator, Pete admits to Don “I have nothing” (no Whitney Houston tie-in) and begins to weep. That’s a lesson to Don: Don’t ever leave the office without Megan at your side.

NOTES

- Whose marriage is faring the best this week? Betty and Henry are out of the running, so that leaves the Drapers, the Cosgroves, the Campbells, the Sterlings and the Pryces. Pete and Roger were both unfaithful; Ken feels most alive when he’s writing while his wife’s asleep; and Rebecca’s likely upset about the bubblegum incident, though Lane is in the clear despite minor bruising. Although Don didn’t want to wear the sport jacket, it’s fair to say he and Megan are going strong. Neither can seem to resist the other’s seductive power. It’s tough to gauge the enduring strength of Don’s feelings for Megan, because, as viewers, we entered his marriage with Betty on the long way down. His words to Pete are promising, if a bit too rosy to guarantee longevity: “If I’d met (Megan) first, I would have known not to throw it away.”

- I was especially excited for tonight’s episode when I saw who co-wrote it with creator Matthew Weiner. Lending the show some added period authenticity, Frank Pierson — an old hand in Hollywood who co-wrote 1967’s “Cool Hand Luke” and directed 1976’s “A Star is Born” — was consulting producer on the third season and now this season. “Signal 30” is the 86-year-old's first writing credit on the show. Featuring only a handful of the key players, the John Slattery-directed episode was more slow-paced than usual and another thematically strong entry this season. It's also not every day that fisticuffs enter the ad world.

- Are we getting a follow-up soon on Michael’s home life?

- What did everyone take away from the beginning of Ken's story "The Man with the Miniature Orchestra"? More like the guy with the tiniest violin.